Brown, Walton focus on minority communities in latest efforts to win voters

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — We’re less than a week from Election Day and both Mayor Byron Brown and Democratic candidate India Walton are trying to persuade undecided voters why they think they belong in City Hall.

On Thursday, both candidates turned their focus toward minority communities.

Mayor Brown was on Crowley Avenue, joining the Land Bank in cutting the ribbon on two new affordable homes on formerly vacant lots.

He says Walton’s claims that the city does not employ enough women and minority groups is simply not true, and says yesterday’s event is proof of that.

“These two homes that are open today have been built by Brenda Calhoun of Onyx Global Development — a minority, women-owned business in the City of Buffalo, and it just shows that minority businesses are growing, women-owned businesses are growing,” Brown says.

Brown also says he’s hired more women than any mayor in the history of the city.

Meanwhile, Walton stopped by the West Side Bazaar, marching to the polls and rallying with supporters from local immigrant and refugee populations.

Walton called out the Brown administration, saying its support for these communities has fallen short.

“The number one thing that we can all agree on today is Byron Brown has to go,” she said. “The population of Buffalo is up for the first time in 70 years, not because there’s some economic boom. It’s because of you.”